Community Benefits Agreement

The California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) Project is covered by a Project Labor Agreement called the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). The purpose of the CBA is to facilitate efficiency and timely execution of the project while promoting employment opportunities during the construction of the project, remove potential barriers small business may encounter, and provide for the orderly settlement of labor disputes and grievances. The CBA establishes rules and procedures all contractors, regardless of tier, performing Project Work must abide by while working on the CHSR Project.

The CBA recognizes the Unions shall be the primary source of all craft labor employed on the Construction Contract for the Project. All workers shall be cleared from the appropriate union’s hall. Prior to starting work, the contractor, California Rail Builders, and the Authority will conduct a Pre-Job Conference with the appropriate affected Union(s) and Building & Construction Trades Council to disclose the work assignment.

Non-Union Contractors

The CBA allows for the participation of both union and non-union contractors on the Project. Non-union contractors will be required to sign a Subscription Agreement to pay each worker’s benefits to the appropriate Joint Labor/Management Trust Fund covering the work performed on the Project. This is only applicable to the specific work performed under the CBA for the life of the contract. Non-union contractors are not required to sign a MLA or any other document and will remain non-union once work is completed.

Non-Union contractors are allowed to utilize up to five (5) Core Employees from their current workforce, who will be required to register with the appropriate hiring hall of the signatory union prior to the employee’s first day of employment at the Project Site. Core Employees will be dispatched in the following alternating order based on the contractor’s need:

and so forth until 10 workers (5 Core Employees and 5 Union Workers) have been dispatched. If the contractor has a need for greater than 10 workers, all subsequent workers will be Union Workers from the hiring hall.